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Tag: 2012 republican nomination

Bachmann, Pawlenty Trade Barbs At Debate

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Minnesota rivals Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann sparred bitterly Thursday night during an eight-candidate Republican debate, trying to break out of the GOP presidential pack ahead of an Iowa test vote with huge consequences. Each seeks to become the main challenger to Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.

Their efforts were newly complicated by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who stole some of the spotlight from afar by making it known hours before the debate that he was running for the GOP nomination.

Romney, a multimillionaire businessman who casts himself as a jobs creator, made his own stir earlier in the day when, at the Iowa State Fair, he declared that “corporations are people,” drawing ridicule from Democrats.

Those were just the latest twists in the most consequential week yet in the 2012 Republican presidential nomination fight.

In the two-hour debate, the squabbling by Pawlenty and Bachmann allowed Romney, the GOP front-runner making his second presidential bid, to remain above the fray and emerge relatively unscathed by his rivals.

Though every debate participant assailed President Barack Obama, it was clear from the confrontations between Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor, and Bachmann, now a member of Congress, who had the most on the line ahead of Saturday’s straw poll that could well winnow the field.

On stage just a few minutes, Pawlenty, who is struggling to gain traction despite spending years laying the groundwork for his campaign, accused Bachmann of achieving nothing significant in Congress, lacking executive experience and having a history of fabrications.

“She’s got a record of misstating and making false statements,” Pawlenty said.

Bachmann, who has risen in polls since entering the race this summer and has eclipsed Pawlenty, quickly responded with a list of what she called Pawlenty’s liberal policies when he was Minnesota’s governor, including his support for legislation to curb industrial emissions.

“You said the era of small government is over,” she told Pawlenty. “That sounds a lot like Barack Obama if you ask me.”

Much of the rest of the debate was heavily focused on the Democratic incumbent, with Romney and his seven rivals each seeking to prove he or she was the strongest Republican to take on Obama.

“I’m not going to eat Barack Obama’s dog food,” Romney said when asked whether he would have vetoed the compromise legislation that Congress gave to the president that raised the debt ceiling. “What he served up is not what I would have done if I’d had been president of the United States.”

Notably absent from the eight-candidate spectacle were Perry, who was in Texas preparing for a weekend announcement tour to early primary states, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who isn’t a candidate but was stoking presidential speculation anew with a visit to the Iowa State Fair.

The nation’s teetering economic situation shadowed the debate, with stock market volatility and a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating giving Republicans ample opportunities to criticize Obama. The Democratic president will get his shot to counter the criticism next week during a Midwestern bus tour that will take him through this state that helped launch him on the path to the White House four years ago.

On Thursday, he, too, tried to align himself with a public fed up with economic uncertainty and Washington gridlock. “There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics,” he declared in Michigan, where he was touring an advanced-battery factory

In Iowa Thursday night, the Republicans commanded the spotlight.

Seven candidates — Pawlenty, Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and businessman Herman Cain — sought to separate themselves from the packed field and emerge as the chief alternative to Romney.

Pawlenty, who hesitated in a June debate to criticize the former Massachusetts governor, this time accused him of sharing views with Obama on spending and health care. “We’re going to have to show contrast, not similarities” with the incumbent president, Pawlenty said.

He sought repeatedly to tie Romney and Obama together by poking at both.

“Where’s Barack Obama on these issues. You can’t find his plans on the most pressing issues in this country,” Pawlenty said, promising audience members and TV viewers he would “come to your house and cook you dinner” if they could find Obama’s proposals. “Or if you prefer I’ll come to your house and mow your lawn … In case Mitt wins, I’d limit it to one acre.”

Romney, who has several homes, smiled and took a pass when given a chance to respond, saying: “That’s just fine.”

He kept his focus on Obama, saying: “Our president simply doesn’t understand how to lead and how to grow the economy.” He also criticized Democrat Obama on the downgrade of the nation’s credit rating.

Appearing in his first presidential debate, Huntsman acknowledged he had not yet presented an economic plan, but he cited his economic record as governor of Utah as evidence of what he would accomplish as president. He defended his service as ambassador to China under Obama as a patriotic act.

Huntsman, who is not competing in the Iowa caucuses where social conservatives dominate, also tried to differentiate himself from the rest of the field. He defended his support for civil unions and offered no apologies for other moderate positions he holds.

Gingrich, pressed on the implosion of his campaign amid financial strife and infighting earlier this summer, chastised the Fox News panel for “gotcha questions.” He said Republicans including Ronald Reagan and John McCain had staff defections during their campaigns, and he said he intended, in his words, to “run on ideas.”

Roughly 45 minutes into the debate, Santorum raised his hand and said: “I haven’t gotten to say a lot.”

Showing the wide diversity of opinion, Paul gave a staunchly libertarian answer to nearly every question from the economy to foreign affairs, essentially saying the United States should have friendly relations even with countries that violate human rights and not interfere in their internal affairs. “It’s about time we talk to Cuba,” Paul said at one point. He also said the United States had created the hostile relations between itself and Iran.

Even before the debate began, it was a campaign day to remember.

At an appearance early in the day, Romney was badgered by hecklers at the state fair. In response to chanting about corporations, he said that “corporations are people,” a comment Democrats predicted would be a defining moment of his campaign.

Romney, who has struggled with an aloof and elitist image as he tries for the GOP presidential nomination a second time, made the remark while outlining options for reducing the federal deficit and overhauling entitlement programs.

Despite tea party outrage that sometimes focuses on banks and auto companies, Romney has said to applause from GOP audiences that the rights of business are being trampled under Obama to the detriment of the struggling economy. But in Thursday’s audience, the line encountered resistance.

A few hours after Romney’s awkward moment, Perry spokesman Mark Miner confirmed that the Texas governor would announce that he was running for president while in early primary states on Saturday.

Perry’s candidacy is certain to upend the race, and he could challenge Romney for the role of jobs-focused candidate.

The conservative governor is seen as a potential bridge between the party’s social and economic wings.

Asked about Perry’s candidacy during the debate, several of his opponents welcomed him to the race — and used the opportunity to criticize him. Cain called Perry “one more politician,” while Paul said he was pleased Perry was joining the field because “he represents the status quo.”

Spokesman: Rick Perry Is Running For President

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is running for president, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, a move certain to shake up the race for the GOP nomination much to the delight of conservatives looking for a candidate to embrace.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor would make his intentions known on Saturday while visiting South Carolina and New Hampshire just as most of his presidential rivals compete in a test vote in Iowa.

Official word of Perry’s entrance into the race came just hours before eight candidates, including GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, were to appear on stage during a nationally televised debate.

It wasn’t much of a surprise. The longest-serving governor in Texas history has flirted with a presidential run since spring and has spent the past few months courting Republicans in early voting states and laying the groundwork for a campaign. He met privately with potential donors from California to New York and gave rabblerousing speeches to party faithful, casting himself as a fiscally responsible social conservative.

His intentions became even clearer over the past few days when officials disclosed that he would visit an important trio of states, a campaign-like schedule timed to overshadow the debate and the Iowa straw poll and, perhaps, wreak havoc on a field led by Romney.

Unlike others in the race, Perry has credibility with the at-times warring camps of the GOP’s primary electorate. The pro-business tax-cutter who has presided over Texas’ recent economic growth also is a devout social conservative with deep ties to some of the nation’s evangelical leaders and Christians who dominate the pivotal Iowa caucuses.

But Perry also has never run a national campaign before, and it’s unclear whether his Texas swagger and contemplation of state secession will sit well with GOP primary voters outside his state. Also an open question is whether he can raise the money necessary to mount a strong campaign against those who have been in the race for months or more.

He also may face fierce opposition from secular groups and progressives who argue that his religious rhetoric violates the separation of church and state and that his belief that some groups, such as the Boy Scouts of America, should be allowed to discriminate against gays is bigoted.

Within the Republican Party, Perry has enemies among moderates who question his understanding of national and international policy, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who ran against him for governor in a bitter 2010 primary race.

An early adopter of tea party rhetoric, Perry even has some opponents in the movement. They complain he hasn’t taken strong enough stances on state spending and illegal immigration, in part because as governor Perry signed a law making Texas the first state to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and blasted a proposed border fence as “idiocy.”

But before he starts pumping up supporters and wooing detractors, Perry will need to raise name recognition outside of Texas and conservative circles along with funds to fill a presidential campaign coffer. None of the money he’s raised for Texas elections can be used in a national race, so he is starting from scratch.

The governor lags well behind previously announced candidates in both campaign workers and fundraising, mostly because he denied any interest in the presidency until late May. But the story he tells of having no interest in higher office until friends and family persuaded him to join the race adds to his carefully cultivated image as a Texas cowboy reluctantly riding into Washington to save the day.

The campaign will attempt to position Perry between the moderate Romney and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a tea party favorite.

Perry, who has been governor for 11 years, has touted his business-friendly job-creation skills in Texas as evidence of fiscal wisdom, giving him a chance to drain support from Romney, whose conservative record is burdened by the health care plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts.

Social conservatives already support Perry in equal numbers to Bachmann, who never has held an executive office and who some Republicans consider too far right to beat President Barack Obama.

In polls conducted before he joined the race, Perry was in a statistical tie with Bachmann and within striking distance of Romney.

A career politician with 27 years in elected office, Perry calls his economic track record in Texas a model for the country, arguing that low taxes, little regulation and tough lawsuit restrictions help create jobs and attract business. Texas has fared better than most states during the Great Recession, though it has the highest rate of uninsured residents and among the poorest populations in the country.

Perry is a full-throated critic of both Democratic and Republican politics in Washington, advocating a weaker federal government with smaller entitlement programs and greater states’ rights. He recently signed a pledge to cut spending, place a cap on future government expenses and balance the budget.

When asked during one of the first tea party rallies in Austin in April 2009 about a pre-Civil War clause that allowed Texas to secede from the Union, Perry said that if current federal government overreach continued, Texas could consider secession again.

The Texas governor’s office, however, is the weakest in the nation. Voters elect top state executives and all judges, and the Legislature drafts the state budget and sets its own agenda. The veto is the only real power the Texas governor has other than appointing people to lesser government offices.

Democrats will highlight what they say are Perry’s extreme right-wing beliefs, such as opposing the national income tax and the direct election of U.S. senators. States’ rights is one of Perry’s biggest issues, and he has said individual Legislatures should decide matters such as gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana. Those stances could draw conservative opposition — unlike his well-known love of guns.

Perry last year told an Associated Press reporter that he carries a laser-sighted pistol while jogging, and that he used it to shoot a coyote that threatened his daughter’s dog that came along one day for a run. Texans touted what they called a heroic act, and gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. issued a “Coyote Special” edition of its Ruger .380-caliber pistol complete with “A True Texan” emblazoned on the side.

How such stories play on a national stage could determine whether Perry can secure the GOP nomination. He’ll also have to prove he has the skill to put on a national campaign.

While Perry looks good on television and gives fiery speeches, he is less disciplined in one-on-one encounters where he has made comments like the once about secession. He also did not fare well during the one debate he agreed to in his 2010 gubernatorial race, appearing awkward while repeating talking points rather than engaging the other candidates.

Republican Contest Comes Into Focus

This is a key week in the Republican nominating process, as a Thursday debate in Iowa will precede the Ames Straw Poll in that state this weekend, traditionally a test of grassroots backing, organization, and fundraising that historically has propelled unknowns to win the first-in-the-nation caucuses the following winter.

Mitt Romney, who won Ames in 2007, eventually lost the Iowa caucuses to Mike Huckabee, who finished a surprisingly strong second at Ames and never lost the momentum. This time around, Romney isn’t playing in the straw poll for that very reason.

Michele Bachmann, the Iowa frontrunner, needs to do well to maintain her image as a populist with wide Tea Party backing.

Tim Pawlenty, who has done over 100 events in Iowa but remains stuck in the single digits in polls, needs to at least exceed expectations and probably place in the top two to get any buzz heading into New Hampshire. Having predicated his whole candidacy on this state, a poor showing probably dooms his candidacy.

The Herman Cains and Ron Pauls of the world would need a breakout performance that jolts media perceptions of the viability of their candidacies to get anything useful out of the event.

Look for sharper contrasts than we’ve seen thus far in Thursday’s debate as the candidates jockey for the social conservative base that will likely determine the nominee to take on Obama next fall.